Always grateful for a chance to hear guitarist Xuefei Yang play live, I was especially keen to catch this fascinating programme developed in collaboration with violinist Ning Feng. As part of Wigmore Hall’s series of hour-long Sunday morning recitals, it was compact yet wide-ranging: a perfect opportunity to escape the glue-like British humidity into the…
Category: Classical music
Musical moment: Carolyn Sampson & Joseph Middleton, ‘1901’, Wigmore Hall, London, UK
2026 marks Wigmore Hall’s 125th anniversary, and the venue has been celebrating its birth year in style, with a fortnight-long festival of over 20 concerts. This jewel among them took us back to when the Hall opened its doors, with every song featured dating back to 1901. Followers of this duo will already be familiar…
London’s Wigmore Hall celebrates its 125th birthday
ArtMuse editor Frances Wilson offers a personal celebration of the Wigmore Hall, from its beginnings to the present day Early days The first concert at the new Bechstein (now Wigmore) Hall took place on 31st May 1901. The performance featured English soprano Mrs Helen Trust, ‘king of the violin’ Eugene Ysaye, and composer-pianist Ferruccio Busoni…
Star turn: Simone McIntosh & Nathaniel LaNasa, Messiaen’s ‘Harawi’, Wigmore Hall, London
This Sunday afternoon recital promised to be a true rarity. In all the time I’ve been going to Wigmore Hall – in fact, attending art song concerts anywhere – I’ve never knowingly seen Messiaen’s ‘Harawi’ programmed. Recordings also seem relatively scarce, with a handful of mentions on the esteemed Presto Music website, and some of…
Through the fire and flood: ‘Siegfried’ and ‘The Turn of the Screw’, Royal Ballet & Opera
From fights to frights at the RBO, as I managed to escape from reality there twice in a week: first to see ‘Siegfried’, the third instalment in Barrie Kosky’s ongoing Ring cycle for the company. While we’re talking very narrow margins, ‘Siegfried’ has tended to be my least favourite of the four Ring operas. I’ve…
Tracks of my tears: Fretwork with Ian Bostridge & Elizabeth Kenny, ‘John Dowland’s Lachrimaes’, Milton Court, London
2026 marks the 400th anniversary of John Dowland’s death. Although it’s an appropriately melancholy milestone, one can only rejoice if it prompts more beautiful concerts like this one throughout the year. I confess that I’m frequently wary of the idea that the worth of music, art or literature from the past rests on its ‘relevance’…
Queasy listening: ‘Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny’, English National Opera, London
The city of Mahagonny rose and fell three times in the space of a week in ENO’s recent ‘blink-and-you’ll-miss-it’ production. Fortunately, enough people did notice and the entire run sold out – so I am glad to have made it to the closing night. This uncompromising, scathing satire from Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht tells…
Retrospecstive 2025: Adrian Ainsworth’s albums of the year
Putting this list together seems to take me a little longer each January, but I firmly believe that – my ‘winning’ approach to organisation aside – it’s simply because I’m privileged to discover so much more great music every year. Without any further delay, then, here are the (20)25 releases I’m keen to bring to…
Translating images into music: Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition
Pictures at an Exhibition marks its 140th anniversary this year (2026), famous for being one of the most frequently performed, distorted, and some say “butchered” masterpieces of 19th-century Russian music.
“Why, I auteur…”: ‘The Makropulos Case’ (mostly), Royal Ballet & Opera, London
The latest in the Royal Opera’s Janáček cycle, this is their first production of ‘The Makropulos Case’ – and mine, too. I was excited to be seeing at last this piece that I’d read about but, appropriately enough, had difficulty imagining as a real experience. Please note that this write-up includes ‘spoilers’ to a certain…
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